Plessy v. Ferguson

 On June 7 of 1892, a 30 year old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the white car of the East Louisiana Railroad as one-eighths black and seven-eighths white person. Under the Louisiana law, Plessy was considered  colored and was forced by law to sit in the colored section of the car.
He went to the court and argued that the Separate Car Act was a violation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The thirteenth abolished the slavery and fourteenth which granted citizen ships for the freed slaves.
 The lawyer of the case, John Howard Ferguson was the lawyer who declared the Separate Car Act. This time, he ruled that the state could choose to regulate the railroad companies that operated within Louisiana only. He found Plessy guilty of refusing to leave the white car, then he appealed to the Supreme Court. However, he was found guilty once again because the fourteenth amendment was to give full rights to both white and black races but not to abolish the distinction of two races and the previous law was not established to discriminate either race. I personally found that statement aggravating but funny at the same time. It sounds so hypocritical and ironic. How can a distinction of color of skin can not be discriminating? How can separating them give people equality? Segregation clearly was a continuing discrimination in America.
These links presents summary and more about this case: infoplease, bgsu.edu

The decision allowed segregation as long as they were equal. The doctrine of "separate but equal" took over the public life of Americans in restaurants, theaters, restrooms, and public schools.
However, in 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education decision will strike down the "separate but equal" doctrine.